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Monday, November 5, 2018

After great planning and execution for STEM week by Mr. Carroll and myself, it’s always nice to receive surprise thank you notes from some very thoughtful middle schoolers and their kind teacher. What struck me the most was how they were specific with their feedback about what they loved for our bannedbook event and MassSTEMweek and what they think of us as teachers. It speaks volumes about who we are and strive to be at Marshall Simonds Middle School.

One of the coolest parts of my role as technology integration specialist is that I get to research new or revitalized apps, websites, tools for blended learning. GlogsterEDU is one of the chosen for staff and students at MSMS. It is a multimedia and digital poster tool that can be created from scratch or there is an amazing glogpedia to select pre made glogs from or utilize a pre made template. So here is a glog of our monthly newsletter showcasing a few of the features. Staff and students are all eligible for a glogster account paid for by BPS. Come see Mr. Carroll or Mrs. Floyd to get glogging!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Year two at MSMS presents many different challenges than year one for us at MSMS. We have decided after watching how the library/learning commons operate last year, there are a few changes that might increase our book circulation as well as increase the amounts of different learning spaces for groups to be working in. It remains the dream team of Mr. Carroll and Mrs. Floyd who compliment each other and enjoy collaborating on so many different evolving parts of our positions. We are genrifying our collection which means breaking it into smaller sub collections based on genre. We also have been working to identify current young adult literature based on student interest and whats needed within our collection.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Check out the beautiful foliage out the gorgeous windows of the Marshall Simonds Learning Commons. It's amazing that we are lucky to have a space large enough to accommodate multiple classes and activities happening at any given time. Here's a view of what you may see any day at the @msmsbps follow us on Twitter

Mr. Marino's class loves to come try things out in the Learning Commons. They are using marbles movie maker app on the iPad to demonstrate states of matter and its attributes. They used books to create elevation and were great to interact with as well as collaboratively and constructively figure out how to do this well in video form. Even better than that, that they were having fun while learning!

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Just want to show off some student work connected to literacy. These students used the application Tellagami edu to recreate scenes and a book summary for their ELA selections. I was impressed at the ease of the app as well as students typing in the script. Characters were limited in physical features but we were looking harder at the text summaries produced by the students. A great beginning...stay tuned

This week at the MSMS Learning Commons, we are displaying book covers that have been challenged or banned throughout history and the reasons why. We had a heated group of 6th graders really questioning why some books were challenged and the reasons we should be aware of this. Mrs. Sturtevant quickly whipped up a quick google form and was nice enough to share it for all! Thanks. Let's see how many you have read!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Mari made this animation video app smashing osnap and imovie. IT is very impressive work and just shows again how the art department challenges our students and simply how important the arts are in the development of our learners! Mrs. Baldwin ...you are simply amazing! Thank you for sharing with me!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Hi There! I just wanted to include a list from Teachthought by Terry Heick with 52 great apps to explore over the summer that will enhance your learning. Check out how many you know and see if you can double the number over the summer! 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

This morning, I worked in a grade 6 classroom beginning and end of unit project on Among the Hidden by Haddix. The students did a tremendous job. We began with a quick intro on choices of concepts like book summaries versus book reviews, alternate endings, alternate scenes, top 10 list, a to z books and many other multimedia projects that allow our students to show what they know in an unconventional way as opposed to simply writing a book report. The choice for applications was Explain Everything, Imovie and Book Creator.

Students were grouped in 2's or 3's and spent the entire period filming and refining their concept. I like to give lots of freedom to choose and then refine the concept with each group individually as they are working.

Requirements

title page with name of book

no student last names anywhere

app smash at least once

Students will need 1 class work period to finish it up and then one class to share their work on the big screen!

Pajama Day/Dance at Marshall Simonds was very fun to be a part of! The library was a busy place throughout the day and it was funny to see our middle schoolers embrace the silliness of it all! Is that Batgirl at the computer?

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Increasing student understanding and learning workflow are 2 really important goals at MSMS. Using the GAFE (Google Apps for Education) package, students utilize their individual drive accounts on their ipad to upload pics, videos and projects that can then be shared. These are the foundational apps that we begin with at MSMS and then individual homeroom ipad carts can be modified with additional apps to enhance teaching, learning and student understanding.

The BPS EdTech Team will be hosting a Parent Tech Night on Wednesday, March 18 from 6-8PM at Marshall Simonds Middle School. Join us to learn about the 2015 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments for grades 3-8 in Burlington schools. Participants will be able to explore practice tests and experience features of the PARCC TestNav application being used by students during the assessments.

Burlington students in grades 3-8 will be completing the PARCC assessments for English Language Arts and Math during the week of March 23-27. Students will be using their 1:1 iPads for the tests. The BPS EdTech and IT Teams have been preparing student devices and helping to support teachers and students for the upcoming assessments.